Anthony Mendez' Post-amp

What happens outside of my voiceover studio

The company you keep

Companyyoukeep-1

As you move through life, you update your friends as often as you update your wardrobe. It's almost as if you recycle, reuse, and discard your social group. It's a part of life. There are a select few that you keep around, because there's obviously some mutual benefit to those relationships. That's just the way it is. It's part of growing up. There are major moments - like graduating from high school or moving away - that present you with an opportunity to reinvent yourself and so you make new friends that know you for who you are at that moment in time. Facebook has ruined this.

Yes, reconnecting with old friends can be fun. Sure, connecting with family abroad or across the country can be heartwarming. But what if you're happy with leaving old friends behind; as a mere memory of your past life? A lot has happened to people you think you still know. So, are they still the same people? I'd venture to guess they're not. Although, based on some Facebook comments you might have received from your ol' school peeps, apparently not much has changed (specifically their level of maturity.) This brings me to the question:

Is the company you keep now more important than ever before?

On Twitter, if someone says something immature, profane, or bordering on sexual harassment, it's that person that embarrasses themselves or, worse, does damage to their own reputation. Not to mention, a simple block, will no longer allow that person to see your tweets in their stream. In contrast, with Facebook, every single one of your friends, contacts, or even Mom, can see that person's comments on your page. It's almost an unofficial endorsement of their stupidity.

Am I wrong? I don't believe in protecting your tweets just like I don't believe in having a Facebook wall that people can't post on; that would be counterproductive (not to mention it says that you like to be heard but don't like to listen.) But I do believe in making the distinction between the two and taking into account that the company you keep does indeed reflect on you as an individual and as a professional. 'Time to graduate.

-Anthony

P.S. Wow - that's two posts about social media within a week's time. Tomorrow, we'll discuss cookies and cupcakes.

Defending social media

Img01244

As you can see, my DVR is 95% full (and I'm finally watching The Defenders.) I've pretty much given up on getting it to anywhere below 90% what with all the series and season premieres these past two weeks. Even if I delete after watching (or viewing some OnDemand,) I still can't clear enough space.

Today, I tweeted and Facebooked (what's the verb for FB? I believe it's called "bragging") about it and received a comment from fellow voice-over artist Ron Levine. He showed me a DVR Expander - which is basically an external USB hard drive specifically targeted at digital-hoarders like myself. I received other suggestions as well from several people about adapting a regular USB drive for the same purpose, getting another DVR box, or manning-up and taking back control of our entertainment (not gonna happen.)

What I loved most about this, is that all of the suggestions were sincere attempts to help (or poke fun at me.) No affiliate links; no "brands" trying to sell me anything. Just helpful tips from real people. That doesn't happen every day. Just a day or two ago, I tweeted (or ranted) about colleagues inquiring about your business. I was almost immediately engaged by another voice-over artist (for some reason, tons of voice-over artists tend to follow other voice-over artists and call it networking) who agreed with my point. It only took about two more tweets before she invited me to register for her webinar - at a fee of course. Uh... no thanks. I thought we were friends. Foolish me.

I'm not throwing stones here. I too tried my hand at internet marketing, only to have found myself going to bed nauseous every night. And so, I now use twitter and Facebook to converse with people who either do things for a living that fascinate me or have a similar passion for creativity, family, the arts, technology, and entertainment in general. Sometimes, those very same people hire me.  Sometimes, we just share a laugh. Sometimes, we share war stories. And, sometimes, we support each other as independent creative people. Other times I end up buying something from them; not because they pitched me, but because I like them and what they have to say. So, after looking at their profile and visiting their website, I buy something. It's like getting "more" of that person.

Give more of yourself. Your real self. It's refreshing. There's nothing wrong with talking about what you've done or feel proud of having accomplished, but, I beg of you, just don't sell me anything. I'm not interested in your product. I'm interested in you - especially if you're not a voice-over artist (but rather a real person that is.)

Here's to the real people online! You put the social in social media. Group hug.

-Anthony

My love/hate relationship with Google

Media_httpwwwgstaticc_cnvdt
via google.com

Perhaps "hate" is a strong word, but the frustrations I sometimes experience with something I "love" can sometimes keep me up at night. Yeah, I'm that passionate about Google. It's not blind Google-love. It's true love. Let me tell you a little about our relationship.

It was love at first sight. I had never seen such a clean, simple layout for a search engine before. They called it Google. I would tell all my friends about it... possibly even annoyed them with it. At the time, I was the new media director for NuLife Entertainment (a concert and club promotion and marketing company, now a record label) and I was tasked with coming up with new creative ideas for marketing and social integration both internally and externally. Google, was the first thing I introduced to the staff. Some of them called it "Goggle," but no matter; Because , they too saw the value in its simplicity and efficiency for getting information. I used to tell them, "If Google can't find it, it doesn't exist."

Eventually, everyone knew about Google and it was no longer my discovery. It became a celebrity and I felt like I was standing on the sidelines at the "red carpet." It also became verb. Part of the lexicon. To "Google" something meant something. My love was growing. It then added other features like maps and I broke it off with both Yahoo! and Mapquest (which kept leading to a dead end... sometimes literally.)

I remember Leo Laporte on ZDTV talking about this much buzzed about (foreshadowing?) free email called Gmail. I thought the name was silly, but I wanted an invitation so badly. After all, everything stopped when "Call for Help" and "Screen Savers" came on (just ask my then-girlfriend, now-wife, Marivel) and I was Google's first love! I deserved an invite. When the invite finally came, I was positive I wanted to marry Google. And so I fully committed myself to it, dumping my first web-based email account, Hotmail (besides, little did I know that Hotmail would soon cheat on me with MSN and things would never be the same again.)

It was a marriage made in heaven. Over the years our love continued, but not without some compromises. Yes, it was great that I can now have a great spam filter, never-before-seen threading of emails, accurate directions, and many, many more functions all in one account. But something didn't feel right. Google was growing up faster than I was. I tried to keep up. I signed up for AdSense, AdWords, Google Reader, Google Analytics, Google Profile... heck, I even let Google handle my domain's emails and showed everyone else how to do the same (at this point I wasn't concerned about exclusivity.) I jumped on board with Google Voice... it literally had a hold on me.

Recently, however, I've become disillusioned, because of its last two additions - Google Wave (I want to love it, but don't know how) and now, Google Buzz (which seems to be just that.) It felt like an abusive relationship; I did everything to avoid getting a Google slap or, worse, being dumped by Google altogether. But when I recently changed my Google profile, only to learn that by doing so I can no longer access my Waves, it became apparent that I was headed for heartbreak. When I signed into Youtube, only to be forced to sign in with my Google/gmail account, I felt like I was being manipulated. Nonetheless, I was hopeful at first, because I truly wanted to believe that this was the first step to consolidation. But it wasn't. And when I signed up for Buzz, and it created yet another Google profile for me (the one I was trying to get initially but it refused to let me use - AnthonyMendez) I knew it was now giving me the run around.

I still have my AnthonyVO.com email with Google Apps, but some services require I sign in with my gmail account instead. I can't move from one service to the other without having to separately log in to that service. It's giving me a headache.

Why, Google? Why? I want to continue to love you, but you keep shutting me out!

Heartbroken,
Anthony Mendez